


Kylo Ren's Exceptionally Large Wheel Of Cheese

by verybadhedgehog



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Banter, Canon Universe, Cheese, Crack, Dream Sex, Dreams, Drug Use, Erotic Dreams, Food, Hallucinogens, Humor, M/M, The Force Ships It (Star Wars), Visions in dreams, sex in dreams and sex in real life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:08:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27975598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verybadhedgehog/pseuds/verybadhedgehog
Summary: Kylo Ren is gifted a very large wheel of cheese by a Mid-Rim vassal warlord. The cheese has mystical properties due to being made from the milk of Force-Sensitive banthas. General Hux steals some of the cheese and finds that it induces very vivid (and eventually erotic) dreams.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren
Comments: 29
Kudos: 122
Collections: Kylux Big Bang 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Art by DustOnBothSides / SideDoorSide ([ on tumblr](https://sidedoorside.tumblr.com/))

Kylo Ren and the six other Knights of Ren were on the only inhabited planet in the Latenine system, where they had travelled to formally accept a declaration of fealty from the powerful Darr clan. Kylo always valued direct, personal loyalty, and knew that a personal appearance as Supreme Leader and Master of the Knights of Ren could count for a lot with the First Order’s newest allies. They would see him, they would know his power, they would be impressed by the fearsome blade of his lightsaber, and the various weapons of his Knights. This particular clan were Iktotchi, and as such had their own — very limited — affinity to the Force. They would instinctively know to be particularly impressed by Kylo and his Knights.

The clan and their leader, the warlord Cheowin Darr, controlled four star systems in the Mid Rim. They had separated from main Iktotchi civilisation some hundred years ago and had chosen to live apart and forge their own path. Kylo approved of this, as the mainstream Iktotchi civilisation was still wedded to the corrupt and outdated ideals of the New Republic. The Darr clan’s declaration of loyalty to the First Order would have to be genuine and sincere, however — Kylo and his First Order generals had all agreed that the clan could not continue to be self-determining renegades.

***

They were all gathered in a long and narrow meeting room, entirely clad in wood. Yellow lamp pods illuminated the panelled walls, and the wooden floor was covered with large rugs, woven with a traditional Iktotchi design of geometric shapes and stylised patterns of leaves and branches.

The Darr clan warlord and his chief warriors and advisers stood to receive the Knights of Ren. The horned Iktotchi warriors were all dressed in their traditional fighting costume of wide pants tucked into long boots, with knee length coats equipped with ammunition pockets and armoured shoulder plates. They carried vibroknives, some more for show than for action, and large powerful blaster rifles. The warlord carried a ceremonial sword sheathed in shiny yellow gold to match the trim on his coat and on his tall flat topped headdress.

The Knights of Ren, including Kylo, were helmeted, their faces entirely hidden from view. Each was armed with their own individual weapons.

Knights and clan warriors sized each other up and seemed to appreciate one another as fighting men. If there had been time, then they would have enjoyed comparing weapons and sharing stories of battles and kills. Instead, they got down to business. The pledge of loyalty would be made straight away, with no time wasted.

The warlord knelt and bowed his head. His blaster rifle nudged against the back of his headdress.

“Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, before witnesses from the Order of Ren and from sons and daughters of the Darr clan, I, Cheowin Darr, declare that the Darr clan and all four systems under our hand pledge our loyalty to the First Order.”

“The First Order accepts your loyalty,” Kylo said in response. “And expects it.”

The warlord glanced up and Kylo indicated he should stand up again.

“It is our people’s destiny to be part of the great galactic civilisations,” said the warlord.

Kylo nodded. The Iktotchi people’s innate, but very weak, sense of the Force was expressed as a strong belief in destiny and what they called the “second sight.”

“You have made the correct choice,” Kylo said.

“I present to you, as a token of fealty, this gift.” The warlord turned his head to the door. “Bring it in!” he shouted.

Two of his servants entered, pulling behind them a hover-pallet on which sat a truly enormous wheel of cheese. On top of the cheese sat a decorative arrangement of fruit, flowers and twigs, like a very small hat on a very large head.

The cheese was mighty — about a metre and a half in diameter, maybe a little more, and nearly half a metre thick. The outer rim was dry and crusted, but the top surface had the pale blue tones of the richest bantha-milk cheese, with delicate purple veins like fine lace.

Kylo couldn’t stop himself from making a rough estimate of the value of the cheese. It looked like it was of very good quality, and a high class restaurant on one of the more high class planets would pay a fortune for it. With a fast ship, Kylo thought… with a fast ship, a stupid and idiotic man like Han Solo could make a very good profit and then go on to waste it on more of his stupid schemes.

“The milk is from my personal herd,” said the warlord, as if a huge piece of cheese was a perfectly standard gift to offer to the Supreme Leader of the First Order, and the only item of discussion was its particular provenance.

Kylo strolled around the cheese, glancing at it in a manner that conveyed mild interest. It smelled, but only faintly. A salty tang, and a whisper of farmyard sheds.

“The royal bantha herd are of a very rare and very special breed,” the warlord said. “They are gifted.”

“This offering was important to you,” Kylo said, more as a statement than a question.

“It was of the highest significance,” said the warlord. “The greatest treasure of our stores. Allow me to make the formal dedication.”

Kylo made a gesture to indicate that he was not preventing the warlord from doing so.

“I would have two of your knights to bear witness,” the warlord said.

Kylo had thought they were all bearing witness, but if the man insisted.

“Ap’lek. Vicrul. You’ll stand here and listen.”

The two Knights of Ren came forward and stood behind Kylo. The warlord seemed satisfied. He raised his arms and began to speak — in verse.

_“Precious herdPasture mothers_

_Flow of lifeSweet and blue_

_Held in darknessWaiting ever_

_Empire fallenBuilded new_

_Worthy brothersMighty warriors_

_Precious prizeNow freely given_

_Highest tableLords a-feasting_

_Be now sons Of pasture mothers_

_Milk of wisdom Sight be true.”_

Of all the Knights, Vicrul was the most likely to appreciate the poetry. Ap’lek, on the other hand, was probably grateful that the recitation was short.

The warlord bowed his head, raised it again, and then started to recite the poetic declaration all over again in his own language.

“It is yours, Supreme Leader,” he said, finally.

So that was it.

Kylo raised a hand and the cheese slowly rose from its hover-pallet. The Iktotchi dignitaries and clan warriors gasped and murmured at the sight. Kylo turned, trailing his hand behind him, and the cheese followed.

Ap’lek and Vicrul stood aside and let Kylo, and the levitating wheel of cheese, pass between them. They then fell into line behind the cheese and followed it out of the hall, the other Knights of Ren joining them on the way.

A hundred metres or so from the hall, Kylo stopped. “You carry it the rest of the way,” he said, and raised the cheese up to shoulder height.

“As you wish, Master,” muttered the Knights, and took the cheese on their shoulders.

“There are six of you,” said Kylo. “And you all work out. A display of physical strength is also appropriate.”

The Knights grunted and bore the cheese between them, rather as mourners at a funeral would bear a coffin.

“Plus I was getting bored,” said Kylo.

The Knights grumbled and cursed. There was still a little way to go to the docking area where the Night Buzzard was parked up.

***

The cheese was stowed behind the main seating area in the Night Buzzard, wrapped in a clean cloth that had been hurriedly given to them by an Itkotchi official who had come to bid the Knights farewell.

Kuruk piloted the ship up and out of atmosphere. Before he was far enough out of gravitational orbit to turn down the engines, the other Knights had already started an informal debrief.

“They have some gift with the Shadow,” declared Ushar.

Trudgen tilted his head to one side. “But weak,” he said.

“Very weak,” said Kylo. “Barely worth considering.”

Ushar folded his arms. “Suit yourself.”

“The animals were more interesting,” said Kylo.

“Oh? I stopped listening when he was talking about the animals.”

“The banthas have an affinity for the Force,” Kylo said. “They’re sensitive to it.”

“He’s done well to keep them hidden,” said Trudgen.

The other Knights murmured agreement.

“Did you sense them, Master?” asked Vicrul.

“Yes.”

“You didn’t want to seize them?”

“I have no need for a herd of bantha. He can keep them.”

“They must be rare,” Ushar said.

“The warlord _said_ they were very rare,”said Ap’lek. “We were all standing right there. Were you not listening?”

“Already said I wasn’t listening when he was talking about the animals. Weren’t _you_ listening then? Was less than five minutes ago.”

Kylo didn’t mind when the Knights were a little argumentative with each other. Strong discipline in interpersonal interactions was the First Order way, but it didn’t have to apply to the Knights of Ren.


	2. Chapter 2

Hux had been debating with himself whether or not to go down to the hangar and welcome Kylo’s returning ship. On the one hand he would like to give the impression that he was too busy with important work to bother with such things. In addition, the Knights of Ren were messy and uncouth, and he did not like to spend time with them if he could avoid it. On the other hand, he did want to know what they had brought back with them. Would it be (no doubt filthy) loot that would need to be documented and stored? Or, worse, a wild creature to be housed and fed? Hux did not to think of the Knights of Ren unsupervised in such circumstances.

So he waited at the unloading area, his back straight, flanked by four Stormtroopers, for exactly three minutes prior to the Night Buzzard’s scheduled arrival time.

He could see the vessel approach, taking unnecessary and inefficient turns. Showing off. He could tell that it was the Knights’ usual pilot, Kuruk Ren, at the controls. Kylo, when he flew, was certainly a showoff but a different kind. More precise. Less… _crass_.

The vessel parked up and its gangway lowered with a bang onto the hangar floor. Hux would have to have Commander Lewes speak with the Knights yet again about proper docking procedure.

Kylo strode out, followed by two of his knights. _Where were the other four_ , Hux wondered.

The other four followed, carrying something between them on their shoulders, something draped in a plain white cloth. It was obviously quite heavy, whatever it was, and cumbersome for the knights to manage while carrying their large and impractical weapons at the same time.

Something smelled odd. Hux put it down to the Knights’ habitual filth, though it wasn’t a deeply unpleasant smell per se. It reminded him, rather peculiarly, of some of the outbuildings of the Arkanis Academy estate.

“What is this, the corpse of one of our foes?”

“No,” said Kylo. “It’s a gift. From our new vassal to the Order.”

“A gift. And what _is_ this gift?”

Kylo didn’t answer. Instead, he ordered two hangar personnel to fetch a loading trolley, and they scurried to obey.

The Knights unloaded the item onto the trolley. It was circular and at least a metre and a half wide. And it definitely, Hux realised now, was the source of the odd smell.

Hux approached. He lifted one corner of the cloth to reveal the outer rind of a piece of cheese. A very large piece of cheese indeed.

“It’s _cheese_.”

Kylo shrugged at him. “Yes. It’s cheese.”

“Why was I not consulted on this? There is an enormous wheel of cheese on my ship, and I have been given absolutely no notice, never mind consultation…”

Kylo’s voice darkened. “On _your_ ship?”

“Yes, on my ship.”

“Consider your words carefully, General.”

Hux sighed. “Oh, never _mind_. Where is this cheese going to go, is my point. Have you communicated ahead and organised storage? Is it going to go in the deck 23 galley cold storage? Because I doubt there’s room. _I_ would know, if I’d spoken to catering officers recently, but why would I have done that if I didn’t know that I had to accommodate a two metre piece of cheese?”

“Shut up.”

Hux took a breath, then closed his mouth and sighed out through his nose.

“I will decide where this offering is going to go,” said Kylo. “My Knights will guard it.”

Kylo walked away, beckoning to the Knights with a briefly raised hand. They followed him in what passed for formation, guiding the trolley with the cheese between them.

As they were about to leave the hangar, Kylo stopped and spoke to a member of the deck crew. Hux did not hear the orders that Kylo was giving, but he would simply order the deck crew member to tell him what Kylo had said.

Having to find out about Kylo’s orders this way was one of the greatest indignities of not being Supreme Leader himself. When they both served under Snoke’s command, Hux could be slightly reassured by the idea that Kylo Ren shouldn’t really be giving his own orders and acting under his own initiative, to anyone but his own Knights. If there was any disparity between what Kylo ordered and what Hux ordered, then it was either Kylo’s fault or it was Snoke’s fault for giving two sets of contradictory instructions. But now there was nobody above Kylo Ren. He could do what he pleased and create any mess he fancied, and the extra work created for Hux in trying to run around after him and preempt these messes was not at all welcome.

This cheese was the newest and most visible example of the trend.

Hux marched over to the crew member.

“What did the Supreme Leader and the Knights of Ren ask of you?”

“To have the Night Buzzard serviced, sir.”

“Does it need servicing?”

“An intermediate, sir, not a full service.”

“Did he indicate where he would be taking the cargo item?”

“No, sir.”

“I see. Don’t waste any unnecessary time and equipment on the service for the Knights’ ship. Components that are within age need not be replaced. Check the documentation.”

“Sir.”

There was nothing further to be achieved here. The crew member was almost certainly telling the truth. Hux would find out where the Knights were taking the cheese. He made it his business to know everything and to hear everything on the Finalizer.

***

Indeed, it did not prove difficult for Hux to find out where the cheese was stationed. Between chief petty officers in Facilities, technician supervisors and surveillance droids, he gathered the information he needed.

In between a meeting about troop deployments and a meeting about training for artillery operators, he made his way to deck 20, and then to the third store room on the left from D turbolift. He did not knock or announce himself but rather used his command cylinder data key to open the door.

Inside, the room was quite chilly. Not quite cold enough for a greatcoat but very definitely not warm at all.

Three of the Knights of Ren stood on guard. Behind them was the cheese.

“I see you didn’t obtain a conservator,” remarked Hux.

“No need,” said one of the Knights. He was leaning on his oversized vibrocleaver, and this enabled Hux to recognise him as Trudgen. “The temperature control is enough.”

“Is it? It’s not going to rot and decompose and stink, like half the other detritus you bring on board.”

“It’s six degrees standard in here. It’s cold enough.”

“Alright,” Hux said. It was, after all, genuinely rather cold in there. “Fine. I defer to your greater knowledge,” he added, sarcastically.

“That’s nice of you,” said another Knight. Hux took a moment to put a name to a helmet. Cardo.

“How long are you planning on keeping this damn cheese here?”

“However long Master Kylo, your Supreme Leader, wants it here. That’s how long it will remain.”

“Right,” Hux said. “Good.”

He walked around the cheese. The Knights turned to keep him in view but didn’t try to stop him.

“So, does he collect them now?”

“Does who collect what?” asked Trudgen.

“Does _Kylo Ren_ collect _very large cheeses_?” elaborated Hux, with some exasperation.

“No.”

“But he’s collecting this one.”

Trudgen shrugged.

“It’s very valuable,” Ap’lek said.

“So I’ve been told,” said Hux.

“That’s why we’re guarding it,” said Trudgen. “Obviously.”

It was infuriating. These scruffy unwashed brigands were patronising him. On a First Order ship, where he held command.

“It’s the property of the First Order,” Hux announced. “If we choose to sell it, the resultant profits will go to our central funds.”

“Yeah, it’s First Order property. We know.”

“Just making certain,” Hux said through gritted teeth. He gave the cheese another once-over. “What’s so special about it, anyway?”

“It’s the herd,” said Ap’lek.

“The banthas,” added Trudgen. “They’re special.”

“Well I should hope they are, to merit their dairy produce taking up a whole store room on my ship.”

“Stop being so uptight.”

“I am not ‘uptight’. I am asking reasonable questions and making reasonable comments. You appear unused to reasonable questions and reasonable comments.”

“They’re Force-Sensitive.”

“They’re what?”

“They’re Force-Sensitive. The warlord of the Darr clan keeps a herd of Force-Sensitive banthas.”

“Absolute rubbish,” said Hux. “You can’t have a Force-Sensitive bantha. They’re big silly farm animals and you keep them for milk. How in the stars would a bantha be Force-Sensitive?”

“You’re not an expert.”

“I know about banthas,” said Hux, as the expert in taking umbrage that he was. “I’ve seen them when I was a child. They roam around a field and eat grass. Some of them roam around on dry plains and eat grass. That is _all they do_.”

“This herd,” said Trudgen, “is from a very rare and very prestige bloodline of Force-Sensitive banthas. Our new Iktotchi ally did not lie to us. Master Kylo did not lie to us.”

“What are a herd of Force-Sensitive banthas supposed to do that’s any different to a normal big stupid hairy bantha? Do they float about serenely above the pasture? Do they do magic tricks to amuse the milkmaids?”

“They might do. Or they might not.”

“What do they look like, these animals?”

“Couldn’t tell you.”

“Let me remind you that I am the most senior military officer in the entire First Order and if I require to know something then I will know it. So don’t play at resisting interrogation with me. No matter who you are.”

“We couldn’t tell you because we don’t know. We didn’t see them.”

Hux muttered a _kriffing fuck’s sake_ under his breath. “You _didn’t see them_. What a waste of time.” Realising what he had said, he backtracked. “Of course, it isn’t a waste of time to obtain fealty from the Darr clan lord and his people. I simply mean, why didn’t he bother to show off his _rare_ and _prestige_ herd?”

“Not a clue,” said Trudgen. “Not really our speciality.”

“We go where we need to go, and we get the job done,” said Cardo.

“You really are all bloody useless, aren’t you,” muttered Hux as he turned to leave.

***

The rest of the day and the first part of the next day went without particular incident.

After his shift on the bridge, Hux went on his “rounds”, which was his term for turning up somewhere on the ship and walking around to see what he might see. He liked to check up on things, and he liked to appear unannounced to see how his crew and soldiers really behaved when they weren’t given advance notice to put on their best behaviour. The difference between a service member who had truly internalised their training and one who was temporarily feigning competence and loyalty would make the difference between victory and defeat one day.

A mouse droid, MSD-4312, accompanied him. This particular droid had formed something of an attachment to Hux. He had, some time previous, fixed a dent in its casing that had been caused by a game of football played by some officer cadets. Ever since then it had a tendency to follow him around, and it seemed to like to be given tasks and errands to do.

Rounding a corner, he ran into one of the Knights of Ren. The mouse droid squeaked in disapproval. It did not like the Knights, and it did not like the mess they carried on the soles of their shoes — the task of cleaning up after them on these upper levels was more likely to fall to a mouse droid than to a team of Stormtrooper cadets on mop and bucket rota.

“Ah, still making my ship untidy, I see,” said Hux.

“Nice to see you too, General.”

“Not on cheese duty?”

“That’s all finished with. For now, anyway. Master Kylo has taken full responsibility for the cheese.”

“Has he now.”

“He’s taken it to his own chambers.”

“Indeed,” Hux said, greedily taking in the new information. “What’s he planning on doing with it? Surely he’s not going to scoff the lot?”

“He plans to meditate with it.”

“Meditate. With a piece of cheese.” Hux pursed his lips. “Ugh, _nothing_ you people do or say ought to surprise me any more.”

“He sensed the Force within it.”

Hux rolled his eyes and breathed out through his nose. He was not going to enter into any discussion about matters mystical and spiritual. They were far outside of his (numerous) fields of expertise, and in any case it was even more aggravating to discuss them with the lesser Knights than it was with Kylo Ren himself.

“I trust that if I require the Supreme Leader for anything that I will be able to get a prompt response from him,” he said.

“Whatever you say, Hux.”

The worst thing about the Knights of Ren is that they were always very _close_ to being insubordinate, or at least cheeky — though since they were outside of the official ranking system, their attitude couldn’t be legally classed as insubordination. But it _was_ cheeky. It was blatant cheek, aimed at Hux, and he didn’t like it.

Hux gave the eye slit of the Knight’s helmet a short sharp stare, nodded curtly and went on his way, followed by the mouse droid.

***

Elsewhere on the Finalizer, word about the cheese had got out. A naval chief petty officer from the forward port laser cannon team brought up the topic to a colleague from propulsion systems.

“You heard about the cheese?” she asked.

“No?”

“Apparently,” the naval officer said, in a hushed voice, “Kylo Ren’s got this massive piece of cheese, like the size of a tie fighter pod, and he won’t let anyone see it.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“No, straight up. Major Claasen saw the Knights of Ren escorting this cheese into storage.”

“What are they doing with it? Are they eating it?”

“Who knows. It’s the Supreme Leader’s cheese, though, they’re only guarding it for him.”

“Is he going to eat it? Is it, like, mystical cheese? Like a sacred Sith recipe or something.”

“He’s gonna fatten Hux up with it and stop him being so skinny.”

“Ha! Then what’s he going to do?”

“I don’t know but it’s got to be way above our ranking and pay grade.”

***

For General Hux, too, the question was _what was Kylo Ren doing with the cheese_. If the rather insolent Knights were to be believed, he was holed up in his chambers meditating with it, whatever the hells that was supposed to mean. There was plenty of good productive work of running the damned Galaxy to be done, and nobody else on the Supreme Council could afford to take time off to sit down and contemplate lunch.

And if the gossip among officer ranks had any substance behind it, then Kylo Ren was making lunch of it, and nothing more spiritual than that.

What Kylo _should_ be doing was dealing with the cheese through the proper channels, and Hux knew very well he wasn’t doing that.

It would have been far simpler if the Darr clan had simply given the First Order a large sum of credits and a pledge of military support. Gifts in kind were all very well, but it was annoying to have to process them and sell them and turn them into actual useful credits. There was a small team in Central Finances who dealt with this sort of thing, but of course they weren’t able to sell the cheese at the moment since they didn’t have it in their possession.

Infuriating.

Nonetheless, Hux kept checking the financial accounts to see if the cheese had been sold. It hadn’t. Kylo Ren was still holding on to it for whatever reason.

Or perhaps Ren had sold it himself and pocketed the proceeds. Embezzlement was a serious crime in Hux’s opinion, even for the Leader. Every member of the First Order should be dedicating themselves entirely to the expansion and enrichment of the Order, not feathering their own nests — self interest would never build an Empire. Only a very chosen few could take their pick from donations and gifts, in a specific and limited fashion.

He was going to have to find out _exactly_ what Kylo Ren was doing with the cheese.

As Hux had the access codes to every single square metre of the Finalizer, it would not be a problem for him to get into Kylo Ren’s personal quarters. There he would have his answer. It was simply a question of waiting for Kylo to be occupied elsewhere. Preferably off-ship.

***

The opportunity duly arose, with Kylo Ren away fighting terrorists and hooligans. Hux had a little spare time in between meetings and administration duties, and he took himself to the senior officers accommodation deck. If anyone saw him, he would simply be on his way to his own chambers.

Hux keyed in the access code, and the door to Kylo Ren’s personal quarters slid open. He stepped in quickly and quietly, followed by the mouse droid MSD-4312.

“You will have to be very quiet,” Hux hissed at the droid. “And don’t move anything, and don’t knock anything over.”

The surfaces of Kylo’s console and the chrome mountings of his desk chair glinted in the low light. Hux could see the vague shape of the cheese a little further into Kylo’s chambers, between the cabinet that housed Vader’s relics and the entryway to Kylo’s sleeping area. He turned up the lights to a more civilised sixty percent and went to investigate, the mouse droid trundling along behind him.

The cheese was resting on a flat piece of carbon fibre composite propped up on several metal trestles — all of which had been abstracted from one of the ship’s fabrication and repair workshops, Hux could see, either by one of the Knights or by Kylo himself. Accurate inventory keeping was always someone else’s problem, to Kylo, if there was something he wanted badly enough.

In front of the cheese was a folded up piece of black cloth, presumably on which Kylo had been sitting while he meditated. There were candles on the floor on both sides, presumably to provide an ambience. Two paper books had been placed in front of the meditation position, in a way that suggested they were not there to be read, but only for show, or whatever the religious version of “for show” was.

And then Hux saw it.

A small piece had been cut from the cheese. A little section of the outer rind cut through, and some of the cheese cut and removed.

So he _had_ been eating it, the absolute scoundrel.

He most likely hadn’t been meditating at all, but simply snacking. On luxury foods. While not letting anyone else have any. Having a little candle-lit cheese dinner to himself. What a spoiled child of a man. It was outrageous.

Hux had been able to smell the cheese a little more strongly than when he’d seen it in the storage room, under the custody of the Knights of Ren, and now it was apparent why. It had been cut into, which meant he could smell the freshly cut inner substance of the thing. It was rather appetising.

Of course he had a knife up his sleeve, but it wouldn’t do to mess up the precision-crafted monomolecular blade with cheese.

“MSD-4312,” he said. “Go to the senior officers’ mess and fetch a cheese knife. They’ll be kept in storage for banquets. Ask a droid worker.”

The little droid was already programmed with the proper clearances to be able to return with the knife without any interference. Someone might have queried a human crew member as to what they were doing with a piece of formal cutlery and where they were going with it, but nobody would stop to question a mouse droid, and certainly not one that was already allocated to duty on the senior officers’ accommodation deck.

Hux took the time to have a little wander around Kylo’s room — he felt it always worth snooping around to see what he could find out. Knowledge was power. It could be gleaned and hoarded, stored and matured, and then finally exchanged for power. Hux was a very patient man when it came to investing in power.

Kylo kept his quarters fairly spartan, and much cleaner and tidier than most First Order personnel might have imagined.

There was still the horrible table of ashes, and he hadn’t covered it with a cloth or polyplast sheet. This was really rather unhygienic now that Kylo had decided to keep a foodstuff out in the open in the same room.

Hux looked on Kylo’s desk area. There was nothing in the way of data chit receipts to suggest what he might be planning to do with the cheese, only another book and a box of replacement datapad styluses.

Hux skipped over one particular set of doors, those that hid a secret niche in which Kylo kept the burnt relic of Darth Vader’s helmet. Hux didn’t particularly want to be faced with Vader’s distorted visage.

The next closet contained neatly folded physical training kit, and what looked like several unopened boxes of ultra soft wool socks, learning the label of a manufacturer who was not on the First Order approved supplier list. Proof once again that Kylo was a self-serving creature who considered himself above and apart of the rules. 

The door into Kylo’s quarters beeped, and for a second Hux was gripped with anxiety that Kylo had returned early. But it was the mouse droid, whirring cheerfully towards him.

Hux opened the little droid’s forward carrying compartment, and took out the cheese knife. With the knife clasped behind his back, he peered at the cheese, assessing how best to remove another tiny piece from the already excavated section.

He nodded to himself and the operation began. He extended the cut through the rind by just a centimetre or so and carefully carved out a thin slab from the inside wall of the already excavated section. He then took a zip lock plastic bag from his pocket and placed the piece of cheese inside, sealing it to ensure that the scent of the cheese would not give him away. The bag went back into his pocket. There was time to dash into Kylo’s refresher and wash the knife under the sink tap with a quick blast of sonic and a rinse of water, before depositing it back in the mouse droid’s carrying compartment.

“Return it via the dishwashing systems,” he said.

After a quick scan of the room to make sure he had left nothing out of place, Hux left Kylo’s chambers and locked the door behind him.

Back in his own chambers, Hux secured the cheese sample in his mini-conservator, for later investigation and taste-testing.

He also took the opportunity to comb his hair and reapply pomade before heading for the bridge to take command from Peavey.

***

On the way. he dropped in on General Engell, in her office. They had a brief discussion to confirm the allocation of Stormtrooper cadets to active service missions.

And then she had a question about something quite unconnected.

“What’s all this about cheese?”

“Nothing that need concern the administration of the Trooper training programme.”

“Hux. Come on.”

Hux sighed. “It’s really nothing to bother about, in as much as I have the situation under control. Supreme Leader Ren was given a gift by a new ally. The gift was, as you may have heard, an example of that nation’s dairy produce.”

“Some cheese.”

“Yes. A substantial thing of cheese. Our Supreme Leader has taken personal charge of the gift.”

“I see. Any further questions to the Supreme Leader's office, then.”

"Yes. But keep me informed of any response."

***

It was 2200h before Hux was back in his rooms. On entering, he removed his tunic and boots, and slid on a pair of indoor slippers.

It was finally time to investigate the cheese. And what better way to investigate than by sampling it. He would have it with a nice, plain, standard issue regulation-baked cracker — he kept a couple of boxes of standard crackers in his chambers along with some ready-rations, in case of emergency.

With a blunt eating knife, it was quite easy to break off a morsel of cheese and apply it to one of the crackers.

Hux took a bite and munched thoughtfully.

It really _was_ rather nice. It had a pleasant, creamy texture that seemed to melt on the tongue, and a very nice tart salty tang. He had another small piece on a cracker and, satisfied, washed down his snack with a cup of fine Tarine tea.

He took the time to review some planning documents prior to his morning meetings, and after that it was very much time for bed.

He slept.

***

Hux was in a large room, with huge windows giving a view of cloudy planet-side skies and a city far below.

_Windows, not viewports. A city far below…_

The room was decorated in an elegant style, less sparse than the military utility of a starship. Six high backed upholstered chairs surrounded a table with a richly grained wooden top. Glass display cases held objects that were obviously — the way things were always obvious in dreams — rare, precious and either expensive or priceless.

There was work to be done, he knew. There was always work to be done.

He walked through a pair of nearly silent sliding doors into an adjoining room. This was the office. It had a huge desk with a very high backed chair behind it. In front of the desk were plain chairs with arm rests, intended for visitors. To the side of the room there were more display cases with objects to show off.

He was wearing, he now noticed, a long robe over narrow trousers. The robe was dark red with grey trim, and Hux knew — once again with the unerring instinct of dreams — that it made him look very important indeed, and that this was only right and proper.

He sat at the desk and pushed a call button.

An assistant entered through another pair of doors. The assistant was a man in semi-civilian dress, with a First Order emblem badged on his chest. He looked to be about thirty five or forty, and Hux knew, somehow, that this meant he must therefore himself be in his forties. The assistant’s face was blandly familiar, though Hux didn’t immediately have a name for him. It wasn’t important, since this was a dream. In real life he would have the man’s name.

“I have processed the annotations you made on last night’s briefings, sir,” the assistant said.

“Good.”

“And I have forwarded the morning’s data files to your personal console. There are no changes to your schedule for the day. Live holobroadcast at eleven, followed by recording a holo for Citizen Information Services.”

“Very good.”

“There is one item that requires the Supreme Leader’s signature as well as yours, but we should be able to catch up with him soon.”

“It won’t be a problem.”

“I shall leave you to your work, Chancellor,” the assistant said. “Half past ten for preparation before the live holobroadcast?”

“Yes, that will be fine.”

The assistant saluted him and left the room.

Hux went to the window and looked out. Busy speeder traffic wove through the air corridors between buildings. He recognised landmarks. This was Coruscant City, capital of Republic and of Empire, and now capital of the First Order Galactic Administration. A tall tower opposite carried a huge First Order emblem.

Kylo was still the Supreme Leader, but Hux clearly had responsibility, power and esteem as Chancellor. Victory must have been glorious. The Galaxy had bent to their rule. It certainly seemed that Hux had quite a lot of say as to what their rule was, and how to implement it.

***

Hux woke, in slight confusion. He had been dreaming, and _very_ vividly. He sorted through his memories of the dream, and considered them. It was rather satisfying. As an advertisement for a glorious future, it was certainly appealing. He very much liked the idea of being in charge politically. In this scenario, Kylo had been sensible enough to let Hux get on with running things, which would clearly be for the best.

If only the real life Kylo Ren would be so sensible. If there were any chance of talking him into giving Hux proper power and responsibility, then they would be able to proceed. There would be no need to make plans to have him got rid of.

***

Elsewhere on the ship, on the very same deck, in the very same senior officers’ accommodation block, the First Order’s Supreme Leader also woke, and began to weigh up the dream that he had had.

It was slightly disappointing. He had expected to have a vision that involved something more than everyday life here on the ship. The only feature distinguishing the dream from reality was the attitude displayed by General Hux.


	3. Chapter 3

It was the middle shift aboard the Finalizer, and Hux was on the observation deck, surveying the familiar wedge of his ship as she effortlessly cut through space.

It was a brief moment that he was taking for himself, and it was also an opportunity to look out for anything on the outside that might need maintenance attention.

His morning meetings had been mildly troublesome, as he had found that the notes he had made the night before were mostly illegible, and where they were legible they were mostly irrelevant. He had been obliged to do some thinking on the hoof, which he was perfectly capable of, but always preferred to avoid.

“General Hux.”

Hux’s back stiffened, to the extent to which such a thing was possible.

“Supreme Leader. What do you want?”

“You’ve stolen from me.”

“I have done no such thing.”

“I know it was you. In my rooms. You have the codes.”

“I am not the only officer who has the codes. The head of Facilities has the codes to all rooms on ship.”

“I don’t suspect the head of Facilities,” Kylo said, his voice dark and deep and annoyingly _close_ , in the way he had of always sounding that little bit _too_ close, that little bit almost _intimate_. “I suspect _you_.”

“So you say,” said Hux, still committed to sounding more irritated than worried.

“I could look, you know. I could find out for certain.”

Hux did not put a lot of credence to the threat of mind-reading. He and Kylo both knew that it was in the best interests of the First Order and its Supreme Leader that Hux’s mind remain in working order. Kylo had never messed about with Hux’s mind before, and Hux felt confident that he was not about to start right now.

Kylo turned and left in his usual abrupt fashion, leaving Hux to gaze out of the viewport and weigh up what Kylo had said.

If Kylo was so bothered by the idea that Hux might have snuck the tiniest portion of cheese from his rooms, then logically there must be something particularly special about the cheese, at least in Kylo’s estimation. The Knights of Ren had told Hux about the banthas who produced the milk for the cheese — did they, and Kylo, believe that the animals’ supposed magical properties (Hux once again winced at the foolishness of even considering the magical properties of a herd of farm animals) carried over to their milk?

It did sound very far fetched indeed. But it was the sort of nonsense that _Kylo_ was likely to believe, and which was likely to guide Kylo’s actions. Hux had not got this far in the Galaxy without knowing the importance of understanding one’s opponent’s psychology.

Now, if there _was_ something special about the cheese, even if only in Kylo Ren’s deluded imagination, then it made a lot of sense for Hux to make another little snack of it. Just to spite Kylo.

So, that evening he did. A slab of creamy and delicious cheese atop a flour cracker, complemented by a cup of tea. And would not a little wine go very well with this cheese, he thought. He was not about to send for a bottle at this time of night, however.

***

Hux slept.

He dreamt once more.

This scenario was quite different this time. He was in a place of work again, certainly, but it was much smaller and had nothing of the plush elegance of the Coruscant high-rise. There were pictures of racing starships on the wall and two desks with consoles and multiple display screens.

He knew he was happy in his work. He was working with a team and developing something new. He felt in his element.

Kylo entered the room through an open doorway. Hux wasn’t in the least bit surprised to see him — of course Kylo was part of this scenario. They were both, if anything, pleased to see each other. That was… _different_.

“Hey,” Kylo said. “When’s it gonna be ready for me to jump in and fly?”

“Soon,” Hux said, in a far more easy-going tone than he’d ever use in real life.

He beckoned Kylo over and showed him some new developments on a display screen. The part in question looked like a new power unit. The technical details were a little vague, as though Hux’s sleeping mind couldn’t quite put in the work to make them up.

A colleague brought two mugs of caf. Kylo and Hux sat and chatted for a bit. They were quite warm with each other, almost laughing and joking. Kylo seemed to have complete faith in Hux to make him the fastest ship possible, and Hux had complete faith in Kylo to be a brilliant pilot and win races.

The dream faded briefly into a haze, then came back into focus again.

He and Kylo were out on a docking deck. Kylo was ready to test the new power unit in the ship. He was wearing his pilot overalls, which were black and bright blue. Hux glanced down and noticed that there was a name tag stitched to Kylo’s belt. It read “Solo.”

Kylo climbed into the cockpit and strapped himself in.

Hux woke up again, feeling the dream fade away like a water tank quickly emptying.

The dream had once again been detailed and realistic, and that was really what had made it so strange. This time it was the personal interaction between them, rather than the setting. Being friendly with Kylo was so bizarre, so out of place.

The name on Kylo’s pilot overalls was worthy of note, too. It had been forbidden to use that name ever since Kylo Ren was introduced to the First Order as Snoke’s new apprentice. Hux was sure that Kylo would never choose to be addressed that way, or identified that way. His rebel traitor parents were to be defeated and wiped from existence. But in this dream vision, he had been star pilot Ben Solo, and Hux had been — a chief engineer for his racing ship. It was like an alternative timeline, in the same way that his vision of being proud Chancellor Hux in his office on Coruscant was a possible glimpse of the future. Or of the future in an alternative timeline. This racing pilot might be someone Kylo could have been, if he wasn’t who he was. He was certainly a lot more cheerful and easy going than the real Kylo. Engineer Hux was more cheerful and easy going than the real General Hux, for that matter. However, they didn’t have what their real life counterparts had. They didn’t have power, and a Galaxy at their feet.

***

Hux’s morning shift on the bridge had gone without much incident for two hours, thirty-four minutes and five seconds before Kylo Ren made another unscheduled appearance. If Hux were to afford Kylo full, though probably undue, fairness, his appearance itself did not qualify as an incident. But Hux knew that Kylo’s sudden presence usually foretold incidents in the very near future.

And he was bothering Hux at a higher frequency than usual, these past few days.

Hux continued to get on with his duties, standing at the astrogation consoles and making comments and suggestions to the chief navigation officer.

He was aware that Kylo was standing a few metres over to the right and that he was looking, through the eye-slit of his mask, in Hux’s direction.

There was nothing for Kylo to gain by observing Hux at his work, other than an object lesson in work ethic and dedication to the cause. And Hux was fairly sure, through long and frustrating experience, that Kylo was not very interested in learning such lessons.

Hux instructed the chief navigation officer to continue as he had been doing, and turned to make his way to another workstation on the bridge. He almost collided with the not insubstantial bulk of Kylo Ren.

“Ren! What are you doing?”

“I am present on the bridge of a First Order vessel. Is there some reason you think your Leader should not be present on the bridge of a First Order vessel?”

“Of course not. Sir.”

“Good.”

“You were standing over there, observing, or whatever you were doing.” _Staring_ at me, Hux thought. “And then I turn around and you were standing right behind me, breathing down my neck,” he hissed, hopefully quietly enough that the navigation officers would not overhear.

“I decide where I want to locate myself when observing the work of my crew.”

Hux took himself off down the bridge catwalk, and Kylo walked with him.

“How long were you there?”

“Long enough.”

“I don’t like you looming over me.”

“I’m not asking you to like it, Hux.”

“Good.”

“I don’t _ask_ you to do anything. I _expect_ you to not complain so much. I give orders and I expect them to be followed.”

“Do you have any specific orders for me at this moment in time?”

“No.”

Hux was nearly boiling with retorts which he would dearly like to give but could not. _Then what the kriff are you doing? What in all the nebulae do you want?_ He almost hoped that Kylo was reading these thoughts from his mind.

“May I, in that case, continue to supervise _my_ officers?”

“I’m not stopping you.”

It was maddening. Kylo was maddening, and there was nothing to be done about him, at least not yet.

***

Kylo left the bridge frustrated, having learnt little.

He had, after his own meditations and cheese-eating, had a vision of a cooperative, constructive General Hux. That man was nowhere to be found on the bridge. Part of him had been almost hoping to be greeted by that General Hux, and briefed on the issues of the day, and asked if there was anything ne needed to help him with the burdens of ruling the Galaxy.

This stupid half-formed wish was not what had inspired his foray onto the bridge, however. He had been almost close enough to sink into Hux’s mind without Hux realising, while he was involved in discussion with his astrogation team. It had so nearly worked, but then Hux, annoying to the last, had turned around and interrupted him.

He was going to have to try again.

He knew perfectly well that it had been Hux who had stolen from the cheese. Who else would it have been? Who else would be so jealous and petty? Who else had formed such a grasping fascination with the cheese that they were unable to stop themselves questioning the Knights of Ren about it?

Kylo knew Hux. He knew his weaselly, grasping nature. As soon as he found out that the cheese was special, he’d have taken it, and as soon as he’d taken it he wouldn’t have been able to stop himself from trying a piece. The spoiled little rat who simply had to take.

The Knights of Ren had told Hux that the cheese was special, from Force Sensitive herds. On balance, they perhaps ought not to have done that. Knowledge was ammunition to a man like Hux. On the other hand, Kylo could understand his knights’ position. Hux would have been there firing off questions, and the best and quickest way to make him go away would have been to tell him something. It would have been that or violence, and they weren’t allowed to be violent towards Hux, or indeed the other members of First Order high command, but Hux in particular. Hux was useful, despite his shitty personality. And it was Kylo’s personal responsibility to keep an eye on him and prevent him indulging in seditious activities. Or, if possible, to make a pleasant, loyal colleague out of him, by some miracle of the Force.

If they could get on the way that they had in Kylo’s vision, life would be much easier.

Kylo had never asked for this. It was his destiny and therefore his duty to have millions under his command. And it was his burden to have to do this alongside Armitage Hux.

He had never considered what his rule might be like if Hux were actually helpful, until the consumption of the mystical cheese had shown him.

It was vital that he found out what Hux had seen after eating the cheese. Perhaps the key to their cooperation, and the full and total conquest of the Galaxy, was there. Or perhaps Hux had dreamt some treasonous vision of overthrowing Kylo and taking power for himself.

He would give it one more try at reading Hux’s mind without him knowing, and if that didn’t work he would just have to confront him about it. Drag it out of him if need be.

***

In the meantime, Kylo decided to seek another vision from the Force-imbued cheese. It was the most obvious place to seek guidance. He measured out a fifty gram piece of cheese, lit two candles and sat down in his meditation spot.

After initially clearing his mind, Kylo took a bite of the cheese. He considered the sacred banthas in their pasture, then sent his intentions deeper, to pass over and through the grazing animals and down into the very movements of the Force.

He called on the Force to show him what Hux had seen. After eating more of the cheese he slipped deeper into his meditation state, and found himself refining his intention — he needed to discover what course the future cooperation between himself and Hux should take.

Soon he was in the vision space, ready to see what was to be seen. His perception was no longer of sitting in his own rooms, but in Hux’s rooms. He was aware of Hux’s desk and chair, of his food storage area hidden away behind glossy doors, and of his sleek pale blue and chrome sofa.

Hux entered the room, from the sleeping area. He was wearing the long black robe that he favoured when off duty. The sharp knife pleats and tightly tied sash were the closest that Hux got to comfort and relaxation.

Hux walked past Kylo, and Kylo watched him as he went by.

Hux was not, it turned out, wearing his usual robe. This robe, shown to Kylo by the sacred Force cheese, was as normal in the front but entirely sheer at the back. Transparent. See through. Gauzy.

Kylo could see everything, because Hux was completely naked under the robe. His ass was curved and round under the gathers of a fine, delicate chiffon fabric. It was very round and soft-looking, which came as a slight surprise to Kylo, who had always imagined Hux, to the extent that he imagined him at all, as being flat and twig-like from collar to ankles. Hux’s legs were thin, as expected, but not unshapely at all. But his ass was quite remarkable — so round and peachy.

Hux’s shoulders were narrow, but his waist was very slender and nipped in, which, helped along by the sash belt of his robe, emphasised the curves and swell of his buttocks.

It was an _amazing_ ass.

Kylo was aware that this was a vision, and this was what the Force was showing to him. He stared at Hux’s butt and time stood still for him. What would it be like to reach out and touch it? What would it be like to slip a hand beneath the hem of Hux’s uniform tunic and have a good feel?

The altered state brought on by the cheese was mingling with a hot lazy sensation of desire. This was not a distraction. It was the path.

Kylo’s awareness of his real surroundings began to come back to him. His consciousness took the shape of the room around him. He knew where he was and he knew what he had seen.

He was going to have to confront Hux about this, and soon. There was not going to be any easy way to mention that he had been sent a vision by the Force that included a detailed hallucination of Hux’s buttocks clad in sheer black chiffon, which was why Kylo was not going to mention it at all.

Of course, he still very much disliked Hux. It was impossible to forget that. This vision did not change anything about his personal dislike for Hux, not on its own. But it was not at all unpleasant to have had a vision of Hux with an ass that you could truly appreciate.

It was, in a way, less unusual than his previous vision of a pleasant and helpful General Hux. What was disturbing was the combination of the two visions. A Hux who could be cooperative and helpful, and a Hux who had an incredibly cute ass and showed it off in see-through robes — this was very troubling. It was positively terrifying.

Kylo really needed to know what Hux had seen in his visions, because he must have been eating the cheese, and he must have been having visions. And there he was hiding them from Kylo. Like he was hiding that incredible ass under all those clothes.

Next time Kylo sought knowledge through the cheese visions, he might lean deliberately on the sexual angle. Just to see where it might take him.


	4. Chapter 4

Hux decided to explore the cheese again. He was starting to believe that there genuinely was something about it. He had eaten it twice, and he had experienced vivid dreams twice. Strangely, both those dreams had been about Kylo Ren, which wasn’t entirely ideal but there was very little to be done about that. Neither his subconscious, nor the allegedly mystical cheese, seemed to be open to taking requests.

He expected that he was probably going to have some kind of dream that night, and it might prove to be interesting. He lay down in his bed, flat on his back, and waited for sleep to take him.

***

This time, there wasn’t much of a specific setting to Hux’s dreamscape. Hux simply knew that he was sitting next to Kylo. They were side by side. So close. Actually touching.

It was warmer where they touched. Hot, even — but not unpleasantly or painfully hot. Hux leaned into the heat, and the sensation intensified into a sparkling, fizzing bright warmth, on the outside of his thigh and his shoulder.

The next step was for him to lean across and put his head on Kylo’s shoulder. Warmth tingled and bloomed through his cheek. It was as though his skin was drunk. He liked it.

Kylo’s hair brushed his cheek and he shivered with delight. He ought to be embarrassed, but he was entirely forgetting to be so.

The two of them turned to face each other.

Kylo’s hand reached out, his glove gone, and their fingers touched, delicately at first, with exquisite bursts of what could only be called pleasure.

Then they were peeling back their shirt sleeves, with incredible frictionless ease, as though thinking was as good as doing. Now they could touch more, press bare skin against bare skin, which had the fizzing warmth spreading up his arms and through his body.

Hux wanted more, wanted to press himself against Kylo, felt heat in his chest and over his thighs and a delicious ache between his legs.

If they could touch at those places, if they could be closer, if they could be touching _everywhere_ …

And then somehow they _were_. Something — Hux couldn’t begin to understand what — seemed to open up and let them both inside of it, and now everything could happen at once. It was overwhelming.

Images and sensations combined in a kaleidoscope of pleasure. They were at once clothed and naked, legs tangling, hands reaching out and touching skin, touching leather, now only touching bare skin, all hot and smooth and electric.

Kylo’s hands were big and warm against Hux’s torso, cradling his waist, moving up to his chest, a fingertip pressing and rolling over his nipple. Hux thought he could hear himself pant with delight. Kylo’s lips were against his shoulder, he thought, and Kylo’s hair brushed soft against his skin.

He could see himself now, his narrow shoulders speckled with freckles, and he could see Kylo’s hands on him, at the same time as he could feel all these different sensations, bodies pressing together and those big hands kneading his waist, grabbing his thighs.

Everything was happening at once — hands, lips, legs, tongues.

He could feel his legs being held apart, and it had him wanting to know what it would feel like to have more. He had the certain knowledge that Kylo would be big, because _of course_ he would be big. With that knowledge came powerful curiosity about what that big dick would feel like. He had to know. The fact it was a dream made it so easy to know. There was nothing to stand between a thought of _please fuck me_ , and a thought of _he’s fucking me now, he’s inside me, it feels so good_.

It was a rich, heavy pleasure. Everything was like red velvet and slow dripping honey. He was lost to it.

***

It was a shock to be suddenly awake and alone in his own bed. He was breathing heavily, his chest heaving and his body hot. And he was, as the delicious agony of the lightest pressure of bedclothes on his body told him, very aroused indeed.

He found it disturbing and shocking to have had this incredibly vivid and quite strange sex dream, never mind to have had a vivid sex dream _about Kylo Ren_.

His shock notwithstanding, what Hux wanted more than anything was to not have woken up. To still be dreaming. To still be there, to have it all still going on, to have his legs wrapped tight around Kylo’s back.

He rolled over onto his belly and the pressure of his weight pushing his hard dick into the mattress was irresistible. He made a few gentle but thrilling thrusts of his hips and was starting to imagine Kylo Ren above him, hot strong body covering his — when he stopped himself and sat up in the darkness.

“This is absurd,” he muttered. “Absurd.” He raised the lights to fifteen percent illumination and staggered to the refresher. A cold water shower would be the thing.

He peeled off his sleep pants and stepped into the shower. At some point in that very short journey he had decided that a warm shower would be preferable to a cold one. He did not know or understand what Ren was doing to him, or even if it was Ren’s fault at all, but he was allowed to like it.

He took himself in hand and leant against the wall of the shower cubicle.

It was, by some distance, the best wank he could remember having. He had to bite the back of his hand to keep from making a noise, and he distinctly _felt_ his balls emptying.

He would still deal with Kylo Ren by any means he deemed necessary, of course, but he would have this pleasure to himself and he would enjoy it.

It would be interesting to know if his dream impression of Kylo’s penis was accurate. It would certainly make sense for him to be of a large proportion. Kylo had ears that were too big, a nose that was too big (though not ugly, Hux thought, just very noticeable), particularly large hands (he had observed this while they were looking at plans together), and he took a large size in boots (as the evidence of his eyes showed, and as the quartermaster’s records could easily confirm). This was all evidence that supported the hypothesis of a large dick. The shape and girth and the veins and how it would feel to be fucked by it — these were all unknowns.

Hux smirked to himself as he went back to bed. His mood was pleasant, his legs had regained their strength after his orgasm, and when his head hit the pillow, he slept instantly.

***

Hux was in his personal office, on the bridge deck, sorting through logistics reports from other ships in the First Order fleet. His tea was hot and bitter, the energy cells in his datapad were at 85%, and the fleet was well supplied with iron ore. Everything was going very well and nothing about Kylo Ren had crossed his mind for over an hour.

There was a bang at the door, accompanied by an indicator light flashing.

“I’m busy,” muttered Hux.

The light kept flashing.

“I’m busy,” he said, more loudly. “What is it?”

The door opened by itself.

Hux rolled his eyes.

Kylo Ren entered the office, and shut the door behind him with a wave of his hand.

“Ren.”

Kylo Ren stared at him.

“Supreme Leader,” Hux said, to correct himself.

Kylo Ren stared at him further, with a small frown and shake of the head, as if to suggest that the lack of his title wasn’t why he was staring at Hux in the first place. Or it could be anything. One never quite knew where one was with Kylo Ren, no matter how much time one put in to studying his ridiculous moods.

Hux gazed back, waiting for Kylo to speak first.

“So tell me what’s been going on?” Kylo asked, in one impatient rush.

“What’s been going on? Anywhere in particular, Supreme Leader? Somewhere on this ship, to narrow things down?”

Hux was constitutionally unable to resist sarcasm. He was confident that Kylo’s reaction would only reach to mild annoyance. He wouldn’t reach out a hand and clench the Force’s deadly grip around his throat. Not now.

“You, Hux.”

“Me?”

Kylo approached the desk and looked down at Hux. “I want to know if you’ve been having visions.”

“Visions? No, Supreme Leader, not at all.”

“Not. At. All. Don’t _lie_.”

“Visions are your department.”

Kylo took in a mildly exasperated breath. “Dreams, then,” he said. “Have you been having any unusual dreams?”

“It depends on what you consider unusual. Any dreams could be considered unusual, since they aren’t part of real life.”

“Your dreams would be reliably mundane. Normally.”

“Well, either you think I have visions or you don’t.”

Kylo’s jaw clenched momentarily. “Have you recently started having stranger dreams than usual. Don’t try me, Hux.”

Hux didn’t answer. Kylo’s suspicion was inflamed.

“I know you’re hiding something, General, so I’m going to get it out of you,” he said, jabbing a fingertip at Hux. “You know you have something to hide. I can sense it. Something that affected you.”

Hux tried very hard not to think about the most recent dream — Kylo Ren could _not_ be allowed to find out about it, and most certainly not by viewing it in his mind. He felt like a specimen under a scientist’s eye, if that specimen were trying its best to appear like something else.

“Did you dream about something that might happen in the future?” Kylo asked.

This was a slight relief.

“What kind of thing?”

“A peaceful galaxy. Lasting victory for the First Order. Or, uh, the way things might be arranged.”

This was turning into a bigger relief.

“Actually, Supreme Leader, I think I did.”

Kylo stepped towards him, and stopped just short of grabbing Hux by the wrist.

“Tell me.”

“I don’t know there’s much to tell. We had had many victories, it seemed, and I was in charge of government — you were still Supreme Leader, of course,” he added hurriedly.

“This isn’t about your loyalty,” Kylo said. “Stop toadying.”

“Right. I had a large office suite in a large building on Coruscant. Nice clothes, nice furniture.”

“That’s acceptable,” Kylo said. “Was I there?”

“No. You were away on one of your missions, though who knows why, as it appeared we had complete rule over the Galaxy.”

“How far in the future would you say this was?” Kylo asked, after a moment.

“Oh, about five or ten years. Nearer ten.”

Kylo nodded. “This vision didn’t occur out of nowhere,” he said.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“This was after you ate some of the cheese.”

“I…”

“This was _after_ you ate some of the _cheese_.”

“Yes.”

“You’re a sneak and a thief and a liar.”

“Supreme Leader…” began Hux, though he knew there was little point in trying to deny these things. His actions were all perfectly _justified_ , however — which Kylo might realise, were he not so pig-headed.

“How large a piece did you eat?”

“About this big.” Hux demonstrated by holding his fingers apart.

Kylo rounded on him. “And how did you know that was the correct amount to take? Have you been researching? Did your technical documents give you the answer? No.”

“It was a _piece_ of _cheese_ ,” said Hux, indignantly.

“I was using the cheese in controlled conditions,” said Kylo. “You were being reckless.”

“Controlled conditions?” scoffed Hux. “You?”

Kylo pouted. “I took a very small piece and monitored myself for its effects, using active meditation, undertaken in the correct way.”

“Active meditation, indeed.”

“You would estimate twenty grams of cheese? No, more… fifty?”

“About fifty, I would say. And on the second instance —“

“There was a second instance?”

“Yes, on the second instance I dreamt, or envisioned, if you must, that we were working together and, ah, getting on well. It was very harmonious.”

Kylo approached him. He reached out his hand to Hux’s forehead. This could not be allowed.

“Absolutely not! I will not have you reading my mind.”

Kylo pressed on.

“Tell me about when we worked together.”

“It was a better experience than this is, I can tell you that much,” said Hux.

He could feel something inside his head. A light pressure, and the sense of a presence that wasn’t his own consciousness. It wasn’t actually that bad. Certainly not worth screaming in terrified agony about. Perhaps Kylo was going easy on him as a courtesy.

Intense concentration was written on Kylo Ren’s face, in a partly furrowed brow and a half bitten lip.

“Oh,” he said. “So that’s what it showed you.”

This was mortifying.

“I’d be a good racing pilot,” murmured Kylo.

Ah. _That’s_ what his mind had showed to Kylo. Hux felt his body relax in _tremendous_ relief at the realisation. Kylo had only seen scenes from the second of the three dreams. The erotic visions visited upon him by the cheese were safely locked away for now. It seemed as though Kylo wasn’t feeling the need to delve further, as the presence in Hux’s head had retreated.

“Yes, I think you would make an exceptional racing pilot,” said Hux. “Your talent in the cockpit is never in any dispute.”

“We were getting on together,” Kylo mused. “There was harmony.”

“Yes. Well. Not surprising why we don’t get on in real life, is it?”

“No. But the pasture-mothers are giving us knowledge. The wisdom of the Force.”

“Pasture mothers? What in the seven hells are pasture mothers?”

Kylo sighed. “The Darr bantha herd. Lord Cheowin Darr called them the pasture-mothers. They are sensitive to the Force — to a greater degree than the Iktotchi themselves. I think Lord Darr knows that. They are a source of the second sight to his people.”

“Oh, the _banthas_. Yes, your knights were telling me a lot of nonsense about banthas.”

“It isn’t a lot of nonsense,” Kylo said, his mouth forming into a downturned pout.

“Alright. Let’s say, for the moment, that it isn’t. Is it important?”

“Yes.”

“Is it important to the functioning of the First Order as a military and governing institution?”

“The Supreme Leader of the First Order says it is. Is that good enough for you?”

Hux sighed. “Yes. Of course, Supreme Leader. Forgive me.”

“It _is_ important. Your petty, self-serving obstructive attitude may be providing you with the only happiness you’ve ever felt in your pathetic life, but it is wasting my time. Our time.”

Hux sighed again. “How might we better be using our time, Supreme Leader?”

“We need to share our visions.”

“Share our visions?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I would dearly love to be sharing my vision for leadership and ongoing victory with you, though I suspect that’s not what you mean.”

Kylo grabbed him by the wrist.

“This is important. Deeply, spiritually important. We must enter the world of dreams together, side by side.”

“Right. I hope this isn’t going to be like one of those situations where you drag me to a supposedly unpopulated planet and then laugh at me when I get chased by ravenous beasts.”

“No. And I don’t laugh at you.”

“You did.”

“I put myself in harm’s way to ensure that you aren’t left trying to defend us with your pocket knife and your cadet’s blaster.”

“It’s not a cadet’s blaster, it’s an officer’s blaster pistol with very sophisticated modifications. Oh, never mind, let’s not go over all that again.”

“We are going to share the visions that the sacred cheese gives us.”

Hux wondered if the Supreme Leader of the First Order was able to hear himself and whether, somewhere inside his terrifying and catastrophic brain he was still able to accept that the word “sacred” and the word “cheese” did not belong together, and that neither of the individual concepts never mind the combination of the two should have anything to do with the administration and power of a galactic empire.

“Hux.”

“Whatever you say, Supreme Leader.”

“In my chambers. I trust you can sleep in a strange bed.”

Hux blinked.

“In _your chambers_. In _your_ _bed_.”

“We are going to eat a portion of the sacred cheese. We are going to meditate together. I will guide you in some very basic thought exercises. Then we are going to sleep. When we sleep, we will dream.”

Kylo made it sound so straightforward.

“Do I get to opt out of this?”

Kylo fixed him with a particularly fierce stare.

“Fine,” Hux said. “Fine. Do you have a particular time and date in mind?”

“What is your duty pattern today?”

“I’m due on the bridge shortly.”

“Someone can cover for you.”

Hux sighed. “Commander Thallis can cover for me.”

“You have two hours to prepare. Eat a light meal. It would help if you were wearing loose, comfortable clothing.”

“Loose clothing?”

“Wear a robe. Wear your PT kit. You’ll be sleeping. Dress accordingly.”

Hux blinked back his surprise. “As you wish, Supreme Leader,” he said. “Will that be all?”

Rather oddly, Kylo Ren appeared to swallow suddenly in response. He then half-nodded, turned abruptly and left.

Hux got up, closed the door behind Kylo, and returned to his desk, where he sat down heavily.

He had somehow managed to agree to this. He was going to Kylo Ren’s rooms, where he was going to sit with him and participate in some sort of “thought exercise” and then, and he was not mistaken on this, he was going to lie down with him, on his bed, and the two of them were going to fall asleep.

He was going to be lying down on Kylo’s bed. With Kylo there. And somehow he was going to have to keep his… rather entertaining dream about Kylo… hidden from Kylo’s mind-reading powers.


	5. Chapter 5

Hux prepared for his unavoidable meeting with Kylo Ren. He had planned out what he needed to do, and approached it as he would a test of preparedness for the field.

He brushed his teeth, showered and dried his hair. He applied his usual unscented body lotion as he always did, to keep dry skin at bay. He combed his hair, but decided against introducing any pomade to it. On the one hand, he was attending a formally pre-arranged meeting with the Supreme Leader, and on the other hand he was going to be, he’d been told, sleeping.

He dressed in the singlet and loose pants that he would usually wear to sleep in, and covered himself up with his favourite robe, adjusting its pleats and tying the belt precisely ten centimetres to the left of the midline. On his feet, he wore a clean pair of socks and his fine leather slippers.

He was, as far as could be deemed possible, ready for his appointment.

***

Kylo answered the door wearing a long sleeved undershirt and loose pants. His appearance was unusually soft, all comfortable fabrics and clothes cut for movement, and warm looking socks.

Hux realised that Kylo was looking him up and down, too.

“You are correctly dressed,” Kylo declared.

“Yes,”said Hux, as he followed Kylo into the reception area of Kylo’s chambers. “I had to walk down the corridor like this, so I hope you’re suitably pleased.”

Hux was careful to substitute _pleased_ for _grateful_ , although grateful was what he really meant. Under the strictest interpretation of hierarchy, a Supreme Leader should not be grateful to an underling; and Kylo might have been in the mood to point that fact out. Hux was very much not in the mood to have it pointed out to him.

“You walked all of twenty metres,” said Kylo. “Your dignity is safe.”

“Well, I don’t mean there’s anything undignified about my robe. Or my undershirt and track pants. They aren’t correct uniform for the public spaces of the ship, that’s all.”

“Hux.”

“What?”

“I said you were correctly dressed. You’re correctly dressed.”

“Thank you.”

Hux made his way into the centre of the room, trying to behave as an invited guest might behave.

“The temperature is more moderate,” he said.

“Than the last time you were here.”

“Uh, yes.”

“Invading my privacy and stealing my cheese.”

“Supreme Leader, I…”

“Don’t fuss. I got a conservator for the cheese.”

Kylo was gesturing vaguely towards the corner of the room. Hux looked. There it was — a low cuboid of brushed steel.

“I heard there was a small commotion in the upper galley,” said Hux, “and I wasn’t surprised to see it attributed to you.”

“They did as they were ordered. I have no complaints.”

“I approve of the conservator.”

“Good.”

“Run me through the agenda,” said Hux. “What exactly is it that I’m supposed to be doing?”

“We will do some meditation. Basic meditation. Thought exercises. Nothing that would tax you too much.”

“Okay. And then?”

“We will eat.”

“Right.”

“Then more meditation, until we start to feel the effects. Then we sleep.”

“As you say. We sleep. Where? Here?”

“No. In the bedroom.”

“In the bedroom,” Hux repeated, feeling partly like a fool in a trap and partly like someone on the verge of stealing a tremendous victory. He kept his voice flat, to hide the — if not _giddiness_ then instability rising in his chest.

“You need to be physically comfortable,” Kylo added, rather hurriedly.

“Physically comfortable. Yes, that would make sense.”

“You don’t usually sleep on the floor.”

“No. Absolutely not.”

“In fact,” said Kylo, “it’s best practice to be comfortable before we begin our meditation.”

“Is it. Yes, I suppose it would be. Quite right. Carry on.”

“Sit down here. On a cushion.”

Kylo had found two square cushions from somewhere. Hux was certain they hadn’t been part of his room decor previously — if they had been, they had been tucked away somewhere he hadn’t seen them.

Hux sat down on one of the cushions, and carefully arranged his robe over his knees.

“Good,” said Kylo, and sat opposite him.

It was difficult to avoid taking just a little glance at Kylo — at his body and the shape he made as he sat on his cushion. Hux was not used to seeing him sitting down. He was still very definitely large and he took up space in a very particular way that nobody else did. His legs were long and strong and muscular and his feet, crossed under his knees, were long and large. Hux remembered his reasoning about the size of Kylo’s feet and hands and everything else. He’d had the opportunity to look more closely for a very brief moment when Kylo greeted him at the door, and when he’d just sat himself down, but he hadn’t fully taken it, out of some lingering sense of propriety. And now he was sitting opposite Kylo and he badly wanted to look but couldn’t, as Kylo’s legs were in the way. He could look at Kylo’s upper body, with his broad shoulders and chest even more apparent in this soft fine undershirt he was wearing.

“Relax. Breathe deeply. I’ll count for you.”

Hux did as he was told, breathing slow and deep, in the way that one would if one was trying to lower one’s heart rate, say for a sharp shooting exercise.

“Breathe in for four, and out for six. Okay.”

“Okay.”

Kylo counted out loud, his voice softer and calmer than usual.

One. Two. Three. Four.

*Pause*

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

Hux followed along for a couple of rounds, then Kylo stopped counting out loud, and Hux counted in his head. He could synchronise with the rhythm of Kylo’s shoulders and chest rising, then slowly falling. As he got into the rhythm of breathing, he could actually feel himself relax. Perhaps it was just the comfortable cushion (where _had_ Kylo got them from?).

Kylo’s “thought exercises” were really rather banal. He had Hux focus on a particular object in the room (Hux saw nothing particularly enlightening about the back of Kylo’s desk chair), he had him imagine a perfectly smooth sphere of steel (Hux did not see the point of imagining unnecessary pieces of metal when you could have the ship’s technicians mill you a real steel ball bearing if you actually needed one, but he certainly imagined it vigorously and comprehensively).

Then they were silent again. They fell easily into the pattern of breathing together.

“Okay,” said Kylo.

His voice gently pulled Hux from his relaxed state. Perhaps, Hux thought, perhaps there was something to this meditation nonsense.

“It’s time to eat now.”

“Right.”

“You stay there. I’ll fetch what we need.”

Hux sat and waited. Kylo was opening the conservator, and Hux could hear him moving something around, and a clinking sound of metal on ceramic.

Kylo returned with a plate, with two pieces of cheese and two small fork. He placed one next to his own cushion and the other one next to Hux. It was surprisingly refined of him. But then he was a prince of the Alderaanian diaspora, and so perhaps some of that kind of thing had filtered through from his mother.

“Thank you,” Hux said, being conscious of his own manners.

“Take small bites,” Kylo said. “Appreciate the sensation of the cheese in your mouth. This is as much a meditation as the breathing exercises are.”

Hux knew that it ought to be thoroughly ridiculous to be getting lessons in cheese eating etiquette from Kylo Ren. But somehow it wasn’t. He took a small piece of cheese on the fork, and chewed it slowly. He wasn’t quite sure how much of the sensation he was supposed to be appreciating, and to what level of detail. It was rich and creamy, as it had been the first time he’d tried it. The taste was good. Buried in the cheese, along its vein lines were small strongly flavoured fragments, of a semi crystalline nature. He’d remarked on the tangy flavour when he first tried the cheese, but he hadn’t properly catalogued his impressions, the way that he was doing now.

“If this were a social event,” said Kylo, “we’d be drinking wine.”

“Yes. I suppose we would.”

“I considered getting some. But I didn’t want to alter the effect of the cheese. Our minds should be influenced only by the cheese. A mystical food such as this should be eaten very carefully.”

“I don’t know anything about mystical food,” said Hux, still making an effort to be polite and not to laugh at the very idea of mystical food substances. “I did think, when I, ah, sampled the cheese, that it might be very nice with a wine.”

They both took another forkful of cheese, and ate it quietly.

Somewhere, if things had been very very different, perhaps they would have been having a nice wine and cheese evening together.

The cushion was _very_ comfortable. In fact, if anything, Hux would have said it was even more comfortable than it had been when he’d first sat down on it. It seemed to be yielding to his body and softly cradling his thighs.

He ate a little more. The cheese, too, was getting more and more tasty with every bite. Perhaps he was learning to appreciate it.

“We should feed each other.”

It took Hux a while to focus on what Kylo was saying. They should… _feed_ each other.

“Here.” Kylo was holding out the fork to him, with a tiny morsel of cheese speared on it. “Eat it. And you give yours to me.”

It was very plausible. Horribly plausible. Hux found himself offering his forkful of cheese.

He watched Kylo’s mouth close around it. His wide, dark lips and the hint of a tongue. It was an image to which he would never usually have given his attention. He would have thought it obscene, when what it really was, he understood now, was simply fascinating

He took the offered forkful himself. That experience was peculiar, and out of the ordinary; but not, as he might have thought it could be, humiliating. He sensed that Kylo was pleased with him. This was novel in itself.

When Kylo asked him to focus on objects in the room, it was different. It was easier to maintain his focus on one object — the thing he was staring at held his attention and fascinated him.

Colours appeared more vivid. Edges of things seemed different — as though they were fuzzy and sparkly at the same time.

“Tell me. Are you starting to feel sleepy?”

“A little, yes.”

“Good.”

Kylo stood up and Hux followed.

“It’s through here,” Kylo said, as if Hux didn’t know where the sleeping chamber was.

He let Kylo escort him into the bedroom. He had no objection to it now.

Kylo’s bedroom was plainly furnished, much as his own bedroom was. A large bed stood in the centre of the wall. Next to it was a small night stand with a control panel for the lights, temperature, comms and security systems.

Kylo had brought the cheese with him, and set the plate on the night stand.

Hux took off his robe, as he would not be needing it to lie in bed. There was a hook near the doorway, and so he hung his robe up. He went and sat on the bed, not yet quite ready to get into it, at least not without being directly invited.

Kylo was looking at him again. He could sense it, somehow. If this was only a tiny glimpse of what it might be for someone with Kylo’s powers, who could sense all sorts of goings on in people’s minds, then it went to prove how strange life must be for him.

“You were wearing that robe like you wear your greatcoat,” Kylo said. “You’re different without it.”

“I suppose so.”

“I can see the shape of you. Your undershirt clings to your skin in places. I can see your nipples through it.”

“Kylo!”

“They’re nice.”

Hux knew he ought to be a lot more angry than he was. He was slightly surprised, and a little discomfited, but it wasn’t mortifying or humiliating.

“That was — maybe I could have said that differently,” said Kylo, who was (wisely, Hux thought) avoiding eye contact. “It’s the cheese. The bantha milk.”

“I understand.”

Hux _did_ understand that it was the bantha milk cheese, somehow, that was having an effect on Kylo. He understood that they were both affected. And he did feel, too, very conscious of his body, and particularly now of his chest, and his nipples that were visible, through the fabric of his undershirt, and the way that the fabric of his undershirt was brushing against them.

“We’re going to lie down now,” said Kylo.

Hux lay down, and rested his head on the pillow. Kylo’s bed was firm but not at all uncomfortable.

He heard a rustle of fabric and opened his eyes to see Kylo removing his shirt. His bare chest was magnificent — broad and thick, substantial but not overdeveloped, his pectorals curving softly and dotted with the same dark moles that could be seen on his face.

“I usually sleep in less than this,” Kylo said.

“Do you?”

“Underwear stays on this time.” Kylo was already pulling his loose training pants off as he said this.

“That’s considerate of you.”

“We’re going to stay relaxed,” Kylo said. “Sleep will come soon, and with it dreams.”

“I’m relaxed.”

“Breathe slowly, again. Close your eyes.”

Hux closed his eyes and breathed slowly. He was aware of the lights dimming, and a soft blanket being placed over him. Next to him, the mattress dipped with Kylo’s weight.

He was comfortable, and he was warm. He was aware of Kylo’s body close beside him, and aware of Kylo’s bare skin close beside him, but he was already far too relaxed to do anything about it.

“Feel your body falling asleep, from your toes, through your feet, through your legs. Slowly.”

His body felt heavy and light at the same time. He’d never been so aware of what it was like to fall asleep, and he’d never floated so free of his own perceptions.

It faded, and faded, and faded.

***

Hux could hear the sea, and he could smell it. He and Kylo were walking down a dirt path, towards the sound of the sea. The path was between two high earth banks, lined with lush vegetation. It was very pleasant to be walking here, and very pleasant to be walking here with Kylo.

A light sea breeze touched his body. Neither of them was wearing as much as they would normally. Their lower legs were bared. Shorts. But that was alright, here. It was a dream. It wasn’t cold, either. It was a very agreeable temperature, and the sea breeze was gentle against his arms and legs.

The path opened out onto a stretch of close cropped grass that gave way onto a beach. The view was quite beautiful. Out of the sea rose tall grey sea-stacks that looked almost like tree trunks or huge towers. Waves broke against them, at once slapping boldly, at once caressing gently, stirring up white sea foam all the time.

“Is it like Arkanis?”

“A little. Arkanis was colder. But the sound of the sea is always the same.”

“Do you like it here?”

“I do. Very much.”

“I’m glad.” Kylo’s voice was soft and soothing. “Not many people come here,” he said. “Not many can.”

“Is this a real place?”

“Dreams and visions are real. Or they can be.”

Hux looked around him, first out to sea, then back at the land. “Is this my dream or yours?”

“It’s both,” Kylo said. “This place comes from my mind and yours, and from the Force itself. That’s why we’re here.”

The grass was soft underfoot, and studded with little flowers.

“Here,” said Kylo, and they sat down, just as they had done in Kylo’s room. All that time ago. Whenever it had been.

“So this is where we’re going to… you know. The sex.”

Hux knew that was what they were here to do. He had no idea where his certainty came from, but he was perfectly happy to have it.

“Yes.”

“That’s what I was thinking.”

It was easy to talk about it here. Relatively easier, anyway. Had he even mentioned it before? He considered trying to remember and decided against it. This was a dream, where things simply happened. He was pretty certain that sex was going to happen, and so it was. He was willing it into being.

Kylo plucked a few of the tiny flowers, and laced them together. He leant over and tucked the resultant sprig into Hux’s hair.

“You don’t mind, do you? It’s what you do, here.”

“Not at all.”

Hux picked his own handful of flowers and twisted them around a twig.

“Here, let me,” he said. It was his turn to reach across to Kylo and plant the decoration in his hair. His hand lingered, and brushed through Kylo’s hair, which was just as soft as he’d imagined it in the earlier dream.

He cupped Kylo’s cheek and looked him full in the face. He was honestly very beautiful to look at. He’d never actually looked Kylo right in the eyes like this. It had always been annoyed glances, angry glares. He’d never needed to look at Kylo for any length of time because he already knew what he looked like. And now it seemed like he’d been missing out.

Kylo needed to be kissed. And that was most definitely what was going to happen.

The kiss was gentle and slow, and far more like real life than the other dream had been. That had been a mess of disjointed images and this was more like watching a holofilm. Or to be more accurate, like actually _being_ in a holofilm. He could feel Kylo’s nose against his cheek just like it was real.

“You can have what you want,” murmured Kylo against Hux’s lips. “You can have it.”

Hux kissed him more insistently.

“Get into my lap,” whispered Kylo, and he effortlessly helped Hux slide across and settle onto him.

Hux’s hand slid from Kylo’s shoulder onto his chest, and Kylo made a low sound.

“I saw you looking,” he said.

“Can you blame me?” Hux said, and gently squeezed.

He could sense that Kylo was pleased by this. This is what Kylo had wanted too. He was very sure of that. He could also feel Kylo’s physical state as their bodies were pressing against each other, and he gently pushed his hips against Kylo’s as they kissed, to investigate further. Kylo was undeniably hard, as hard as the great big beautiful sea rocks. Hux _was_ going to have what he wanted.

“We should take these off.”

Kylo pulled off his shirt, showing off his chest once again. Hux’s mental picture of Kylo’s body was nicely detailed, but the overriding impression was simply that it was glorious. Big and beautiful and just the right combination of firm and soft.

Hux let Kylo help him off with his shirt too. In his waking hours he would worry that he wouldn’t possibly compare to Kylo’s luxurious form, but here it was easy. All so easy.

“How do you want to do it?”

“You tell me what you want. I know you’ve been staring at my dick.”

“I have. I’ve been thinking about it,” admitted Hux. The honesty of dream-talk was so compelling.

“I know.”

“Take those off, then. Since we’re going to do it. No half measures.”

He tugged down on Kylo’s shorts, and Kylo helped him the rest of the way, before stripping Hux of his shorts.

They were both completely naked now, which felt so incredibly right, and satisfying all by itself. He’d left something behind by stripping off his clothes, and he was glad of it.

Kylo sat Hux back down in his lap so that their cocks were trapped between them. They rocked slowly together and Hux could hear Kylo’s breath catching in his throat.

In the other dream, he’d wanted to know what it would be like to be penetrated by Kylo, and then the next thing he’d known was the glorious sensation of being fucked. The dream had allowed it to seamlessly go from thought to act. This wasn’t the same sort of dream. As with the kissing, it was all far more like real life. He enjoyed it this way too, he realised.

He felt a light caress against his thigh — it wasn’t Kylo, whose hands were up against the small of Hux’s back. Glancing down, he saw a green shoot growing out of the ground and winding its way over his leg. It was actually growing before his eyes — he could see it.

“Yes,” Kylo said. “I hoped this would happen.“

“What _is_ it?”

“It’s the Living Force. Fed by passion, it grows.”

“By _passion_.”

It was still a dream, and so Hux could be bold. He dropped his hand to Kylo’s cock and took hold of him. Kylo’s reaction was encouraging — breaths and quiet noises. Hux stroked him up and down a few times. “You’re quite right,” he said. “I want this.”

“Inside you?”

“Yes.”

“Inside that _beautiful_ ass,” Kylo said, and his hands were on Hux’s ass, kneading his buttocks.

“You seem keen.”

“You don’t know,” said Kylo, groping and squeezing. “You don’t know how much.”

Next to them, more plants sprouted from the earth, and flowered in glorious glossy red, each one with one single huge anther standing proud in the centre.

“The Force is telling us,” Kylo said. “Can you see it. Can you hear it?”

“I think so. I know what _I_ want.”

Now Kylo was pointing to a small pool of fluid that had appeared in the soft grass. Magical lubricant. The dream had provided them with magical lubricant.

Kylo dipped his fingers in it.

Hux leant forward and those fingers were reaching past his buttocks and sliding over his hole. Kylo pressed gently and slipped one in. It was very welcome.

Hux responded by kissing him again, wet and sloppy. Their mouths opened to each other. Kylo’s tongue was in his mouth and he was licking against it, and Kylo’s fingers were inside him, slippery, moving in and out, delicious, wet, unreal. It was joyous. He felt victorious, exalted, proud.

Kylo slid his fingers out, and Hux made a small sound of annoyance against his lips. But it was only to gather more of the substance, to get his hand in between them and make sure his cock was thoroughly wet.

“Lift yourself up. Then sit on me.”

Hux sat down on him gradually, with Kylo guiding himself inside. It was a wonderful slow slide of pleasure. He put his hands around the back of Kylo’s neck, and began to move his hips up and down.

They kissed again and Hux slowed his hips to a gentle rocking motion in Kylo’s lap. He could feel the strange magical plant tendrils curling and weaving over his body.

The sound of waves breaking over the tall sea stacks blended with the pleasure flowing through their bodies.

***

Just as before, Hux woke up before the event reached completion. He was lying on his side, and Kylo was pressed close and hot beside him, his arm draped over Hux’s body. Their legs were together, feet slightly overlapping. Hux could feel Kylo’s breath warm and damp against the back of his neck, and he could feel something pressing firm against his buttocks.

Kylo’s breath came thicker and harder, and his hips thrust shallowly against Hux’s body. Hux wasn’t sure if Kylo was still sleeping or not.

After a moment’s consideration, he rolled his hips back against Kylo.

“Hux. _Hux_ ,” Kylo panted into the back of Hux’s hair.

“You’re awake too.”

“Huh, yeah. You feel good.”

“So do you,” Hux said. “Wait.”

“Hmmm?”

“Hold on, let me turn over. Move your arm.”

Hux rolled over in bed to face Kylo. There was enough light to make out his face.

“ _This_ isn’t a dream.”

“No. It isn’t.”

“Did we dream the same things? A beach, a patch of grass? We were, uh–”

“We were fucking,” Kylo said. A half smile was visible on his face.

“We were.” Hux had one hand on Kylo’s side, cautiously exploring his body. “It was good,” he said. He leant forwards, then hesitated a couple of centimetres from the kiss, his breath stopping for a moment.

It was Kylo who closed the gap.

The kiss was warm and his lips were wide and soft. It was everything like the dream kisses had been and it was nothing like they had been. Kylo was right there and he was real and they were actually kissing. The touch of his skin was exquisitely real, and the drag of his teeth against Hux’s lower lip was like nothing they’d dreamt.

“You can touch me,” Kylo said.

Hux trailed his hand down Kylo’s chest, over his belly, into the thicket of coarse hair in which sat, proud and hard and lovely, his beautiful cock.

He was more self conscious about taking hold of Kylo and drawing his hand up to the tip and back down to the root, as he had been in the beautiful dream land that they had only just left. But he was all the more full of desire and need. The fact that it was real made him even more desperate to have it.

“This means you can touch me, too,” he said.

Kylo’s big warm palm closed around him. “Like this?”

“Yes, like that. I shouldn’t be doing all the work, you know.”

“You won’t be. I’m going to make you come.”

“Yes. Yes. It won’t take long.”

“You’re close too?”

Kylo’s chest was flushed and gleamed with sweat. His breath was coming faster and harsher.

There was nothing in Hux’s mind except for his own pleasure and the continued frantic movement of his wrist. Neither would deviate from their path. It was inevitable, inexorable, inescapable.

Kylo was first. His body tensed, he made a long low grunting sigh and he came, more on his own belly and chest than on Hux’s hand.

Hux followed quickly after.

Pleasure left his mind almost blank and his body wrung out and satisfied.

Kylo reached over the side of the bed and came back with a cloth. He dabbed first at his chest and belly, and then offered the cloth to Hux.

“Thank you.” He wiped himself and handed the cloth back. “I would prefer to wash off properly.”

“In time,” Kylo said. “No rush now.” He pulled the blanket back over them. “I want to lie here with you.”

Hux’s body was still in a state of worn out relaxation, and he found he couldn’t quite muster the motivation to get out of bed and into the refresher.

“The Force showed me this,” Kylo said. “In one of my visions.”

“This? You mean us here in bed.”

“More than that. But, yes. That we would join together.”

“You didn’t say anything about it.”

“No. I had a vision of you. Of your ass in a see through robe.”

“Ren!”

“It was incredible. I needed to know if that was what the Force really meant. So I took more.”

“So all that about controlled amounts was nonsense.”

“It was controlled. It was just… bigger.”

Hux was, despite himself, amused.

“The vision I had was an experience,” declared Kylo. It showed me _everything_. Every sensation. All at once.”

“I had something like that,” Hux said.

“Did you? You didn’t tell me.”

Hux snorted. “You didn’t tell me either.”

“I didn’t want you to know. Not until I could be sure.”

“So you… interrogated me.”

“Yeah,” Kylo said. “I had to find out this way. By going to the same place.”

“You _had_ to find out this way?”

“It was a good vision.”

“It was. I wish we were still there, actually.”

“You liked the ocean,” Kylo said.

“I did.”

“So did I. I felt the power of the living Force. Did you feel any of that?”

“Not sure. I think I probably did. It was all a dream, though, so who’s to say.”

“The Force brought us here.”

‘You would say that,” Hux said with a yawn.

“I mean it. The Force gave us both visions. And now we’re making them real.”

That much couldn’t be denied.

“Do you think this is just a one-time thing?”

Kylo’s reply was quick. “No. No it’s not. We should do it more often.”

“I would certainly be on board with that.”

“There are many things I’d like to do with you.”

“We should make a list,” murmured Hux, sleepily. “Choose our priorities.”


End file.
